Aircraft

The US Air Force has proposed buying perhaps 20 more Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptors and extending production by one year.

Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne, addressing lawmakers on 24 October, disclosed that the USAF is seeking to transfer funds now intended for closing the production line for the fighter next year. The money would instead be converted into funds for buying long-lead parts and materials to build another batch of F-22s.

As the latest in a series of attempts by the air force to overturn programme cuts imposed by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2005, the proposal is now being circulated within the Department of Defense as it compiles the fiscal year 2009 budget proposal.

"Don't allow any open production line to close until we have stabilised our air force," Wynne told the lawmakers, pleading for their support.

The F-22 programme has never recovered from Rumsfeld's move to reduce purchases from 277 aircraft to 179 and to halt production in FY2008. USAF officials maintain that at least 381 F-22s are needed to meet operational requirements.

© US Air Force

In 2006, the USAF won approval to add four aircraft to the new total and stretch out deliveries to FY2011. Lockheed is scheduled to deliver 20 F-22s a year from FY2009 until FY2011, but new funding is required in the FY2009 budget to keep the long-lead items on the production alive.

This amounts to a small fraction of the USAF's annual $3.6 billion procurement budget for the F-22, but means the service will need to obtain support within the DoD to add roughly $3 billion more to the F-22 account in the FY2010 budget.

Wynne explained to lawmakers that some within the DoD believe the USAF's proposal is "unaffordable" and that the service "isn't bleeding", as others are more heavily engaged in current operations. But he warned: "When [the USAF] does bleed, some enemy will discover that we have forfeited air dominance."